breaking cover
By Nigel Davies
With the Swans riding high in the Championship table and having a genuine shot at promotion, it comes as no surprise to see our American owners finally raising their heads over the parapet to update the supporters they “love so much”…….
They’ve been radio silent since relegation, going full on Howard Hughes as the Swans slipped into the Championship and faced a couple of years of drastic cost cutting to prevent total financial meltdown.
But with the Swans moving remorselessly up the Championship table the Americans miraculously appeared again, like Nessie poking her head above the murky waters of Loch Ness – after becoming almost as mythical as that beloved beastie too.
Yes, with things finally going well on and off the pitch again the Americans are breaking cover to tell us all what a brilliant job they’ve been doing behind the scenes whilst self deprecatingly “admitting to mistakes” yet again.
It was a slightly different double act that gave a wide ranging interview to “selected members of the media”, as super slick Jason Levien teamed up with new Board member Jake Silverstein rather than his usual co-muppet Steve Kaplan.
Rather than regurgitate what was said I’ll leave you read the BBC version of the sweeping interview for yourselves and merely provide you with my underwhelmed reaction.
Upon reading the interview my very first thought was: blimey, that’s an awful lot of words to say absolutely nothing new. The second thing that struck me is that Levien still hasn’t learned his lesson and continues to throw weasel words around, spewing out platitudes like one of those baseball machines that spits out pitches for batters’ practice.
And then I got annoyed again. And I got annoyed because three significant issues were dodged and the “friendly” media obviously didn’t press home the questions on these critical subjects:-
Dilution of shares – the issue of how Silverstein’s £5m gets converted from a loan to shares was left unexplained meaning fears that the Trust will have its shareholding diluted remain
Kaplan’s Board Exit – there’s still no plausible explanation as to why Steve Kaplan has stepped down from the Board but is still fully involved as a key decision maker. All the garbage about “a young fresh voice” with Silverstein is just nonsense
Trust Legal Action – Yet again Levien makes it sound like he’s best buddies with the Trust when the reality is that he’s treated it with absolute contempt. The question about the Trust’s litigation was brushed off and nobody pushed on why the Americans had messed about and then point blank refused to engage in arbitration.
It was typical Levien where he totally ducks questions of substance and instead waffles away with lots of things he thinks you want to hear. Let’s not forget that earlier in his career this man was a speechwriter for an American politician – bear that in mind should you find yourself being taken in by his nonsense!
I will agree with some of what was said in the interview and give the Americans credit where it is due; their last few appointments have been extremely good and it is that solid recruitment that’s pretty much saved the club from destruction!
The appointment of Trevor Birch coupled with Kaplan and Levien disappearing and taking the calamitous Pearlman with them pretty much saved our bacon. Birch’s departure was a blow but his replacement Julian Winter appears to have carried on the good work.
The proof of that is that the Swans feels like our club again, far more in tune with the local community, whilst football decisions have improved dramatically since the final couple of years in the Premier League.
From my perspective I remain very much in the mindset that I will support the club unequivocally but I will not support the Kaplan and Levien.
Make no mistake, sealing promotion this season would in no way absolve Kaplan and Levien of their crimes against the fans. By colluding with the previous owners and excluding the Supporters Trust from the deal to buy the club, they’ve rendered a £20m stake in the club worthless.
And they’ve continued to negotiate with the fans organisation in totally bad faith ever since!
Contrast that with the way Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney bought Wrexham, treating the fans and heritage of the club with utmost respect and even putting safeguards for that heritage in writing.
Huh, the Robins get Deadpool and we get Dumb and Dumber!!
The one unknown in all of this is the new guy, Jake Silverstein. He’s a real wildcard in all of this and it remains to be seen whether he’s one of the good guys or the bad guys. I’m prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt for the time being, although I’m really not fussed on the company he keeps!
If, as the interview suggests, he’s been tasked with smoothing things over with the Supporters Trust to head off any legal action then maybe he could start off by offering to buy the Trust shares – for the same price that the other selling shareholders got 5 years ago.
Or he could persuade his mates Kaplan and Levien to donate enough voting rights to the Trust to restore the balance of power that was stolen from them when the selling shareholders deliberately torpedoed the Trust by giving up the voting rights to the shares they retained, thus giving Kaplan and Levien total control.
What the Americans, the media and yes, all you fans out there need to remember is that the Trust’s shareholding and its case for unfair prejudice which may yet end up in court is the elephant in the room…
